Crystal Star Finn-Dunn B.F.A. is a diverse, emerging dance artist. She has performed across Toronto in shows such as Ted Talks, the Pan-American Games, Nuit Blanche, Gadfly’s Toronto Urban Dance Symposium (TUDS), Breakin’ Convention, MonstrARTity, Funkbox NYC, Your Dance Fest and New Blue Dance Festival. Internationally, she has performed with Culture Shock Toronto (CSTO) in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with Danny Fernandes on tour in China, and New York City at Ladies of Hip Hop with FlowHER House Collective. Her international TV performance debuted at the 8th Annual HUM Awards in July 2018. She was accepted to train in Mani Obeya’s research project in Vienna as part of Impulstanz contemporary dance festival and continued her training there under David Zambrano and Dada Masilo. Upon her return, she trained at ALIAS Dance Project’s International dance intensive in Toronto, with creation under Handy ‘Monstapop’ Yacinthe.

 

Crystal has over 22 years of training through her practice in the styles of ballet, tap, jazz, modern, contemporary, lyrical, acro, hip hop, musical theatre, house, and samba among other street, Latin, and classical Indian styles. Crystal is a graduate with Honours of York University specializing in ballet, modern, and performance and choreography, presenting her contemporary choreography on various stages at York. She completed four years with York's Competitive Hip Hop Team Integrated Entity (I.E.) and served as its President for one where she rebranded the team. She has presented her urban choreography at O.U.C.H., The Academy, Culture Shock’s International Showcase (Los Angeles and Ottawa), Ladies of Hip Hop (NYC), Funkbox (Toronto), and The Bentway Artist Residency with I/O Movement (Toronto) among others. She has choreographed contemporary work for short films Downhearted Euphoria and Egress and multiple music videos. She has trained with companies Dark Dance, The Girls Club, Culture Shock Toronto, The Garage Collective and currently with FlowHER House Collective and Bravo’s Dance Company.

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Crystal’s classical and contemporary training has manifested into her practice of street styles hip hop, house, waacking, popping, and locking. Through battling in street dance she has placed in the selected brackets multiple times including at Ladies of Hip Hop (Toronto and NYC) , Marquee Madness (San Jose) and made finals in the Urban Hip Hop Union’s battle DEVO for All-Styles, Tap Water Jam (Montreal), and Bastid’s BBQ (Toronto) for House. In 2017, she took the opportunity to train for five weeks throughout Europe practicing a wide range of techniques from contemporary to hip hop and learning from international masters of said styles. In February 2018, she founded FlowHER House Collective, a women-based street dance collective focused in the style of house dance and presenting street dance as a performative art. Crystal has been a dance educator for six years in the styles of contemporary, lyrical, jazz, tap, hip hop, house and dance conditioning. Crystal continues to develop her artistry through creative processes, teaching, performance, video work, researching movement practices, and expanding her knowledge through workshops and travel.